As the number of tracks available to recording engineers grew throughout the 1970s, mixers ran into a problem. The final mix down typically consists of slight adjustments to the volume levels of individual tracks throughout the song, and when there were 24 tracks on the songs, engineers just didn’t have enough hands to make all the changes themselves. What happened, then, was that the engineers gathered pretty much anyone that was in the studio around the mixing board, assigned them a couple of tracks to manually adjust during the mix down that made the final mix.
These days, even though there are many more tracks available to engineers, the issue of adjusting levels has been solved by automation. Rather than wait until the final stage of the mix, engineers can automate volume levels, panning and much more while they are mixing. Though we look at how to do this in a different article, we want to take this opportunity to look at why you want to use these automations in the first place.
What Automation Can Do For Your Mix
While it is tempting to get all of your levels set for each individual track, it is rare that all the levels that sound great on one part of a song will continue to sound that great throughout the rest of the song. In these cases, automating certain aspects of the tracks during different parts of the song can be a great way to produce a consistent, great sounding song from start to finish.
Using Automation for Vocals
One of the most common uses of automation is for vocals. While a compressor is used as something of inherent volume automation, even the best compressor settings may not give the desired level throughout the entire song. For instance, if you use a compressor on a vocal track with a very large dynamic range, the settings that work great for the soft vocals may make the loud, grand portion of the vocals sound lifeless. Using volume automation can allow you to use a great compressor setting while still controlling the level of the vocal.
Add Attack to Your Drums
If you’re lucky enough to have the ability to record drums in your home studio, you know that sometimes songs particularly those with a soaring chorus lack that particular attack needed to take the song to the next level. Automation is a great way to add this. Though the exact method will depend on the song, if you have a chorus that you need to give just a little more ‘oomph,’ raise the volume level of the kick and cymbals slightly on the first downbeat of the chorus.
Advanced Practice
While volume levels are the most often used automations, there are numerous aspects of every mix you can automate to get the best mix. Remember that problem with the vocal compression mentioned above? Automate both the volume level and the compressor itself throughout the song to get the best sound. You can also automate EQ, reverb and just about any other effect as needed.
However, remember that with almost all automation you do to improve your mix, you want to be subtle. Sudden, drastic changes in volume (or anything else) can be jarring in a mix. You want to use just enough automation to achieve the desired effect, without a listener being able to tell that anything was changed.
So, Why A Membership?
Let’s face it — trying to create professional mixes without the correct knowledge, tools, services, and network is like playing a concert with a broken instrument to an audience of no one.
That’s where the Sage Audio membership comes in — the membership gives you everything you need to create professional mixes consistently.
The membership is the secret to your success — it’s the difference between the 1,929,999,999 of poor-sounding mixes and the .00000002% of mixes that make people say 'WOW!"
There are 7 unique value-points included in your Sage Audio membership.
Let’s go over each one so you can decide if the membership is right for you.
1. Sage Audio University
- SAU Flagship Mixing Course: 23-video in-depth mixing course that reveals the little-known secrets of mixing and matches the needs of the new music industry.
- SAU Flagship Mastering Course: 19-video in-depth modern mastering course that dives into every nuance of making professional-sounding masters.
- SAU Pre-Mastering Course: Concise pre-mastering course that details the latest industry standards for preparing your mixes for mastering.
- SAU is designed for every experience level, ranging from budding mixing engineers to advanced engineers. The techniques and concepts taught can be applied to any DAW to create industry-leading mixes without expensive software or plugins - and free plugin alternatives are suggested throughout each course.
- Each SAU course includes Start-to-Finish session walkthrough lessons for multiple genres so you can follow along with your preferred genre.
- SAU Certification Document, which can be downloaded and showcased on your website and social channels.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
2. Private 1-on-1 Mentorship
- The Sage Audio private 1-on-1 Mentorship gives you direct access to us for advanced mixing feedback, in-depth discussions, and customized guidance that's tailored to your specific needs.
- Unlimited private access to us for advanced mixing feedback, where we provide detailed suggestions for improvement.
- Unlimited private access to us for in-depth discussions to help you improve every aspect of your mixes and masters.
- Customized guidance that’s tailored specifically to your needs.
- Fast communication so you can improve your skills quickly.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
3. Unlimited Mixing Feedback
- Unlimited professional mixing feedback directly from us so you can consistently improve your skills and create professional mixes.
- Mixing feedback is invaluable, and the Sage Audio membership gives you continual direct access to us for real-world feedback so you can improve every aspect of each of your mixes while you're in the process of mixing.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
4. 50 Free Mastered Songs Per Year
- 50 free mastered songs per year with your own dedicated professional mastering engineer so you can get all your mixes sounding like professional songs.
- You get your own dedicated Sage Audio mastering engineer to create custom masters that are specific to you and sound exactly how you want.
- Unlimited revisions with your dedicated mastering engineer. As a standard of our service, we are not happy until you are happy with the sound of your masters.
- All masters are delivered as commercial, industry-standard high-resolution 24-bit HD WAV masters so they will sound clean and clear on every platform.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
5. Community
- The Sage Audio community is a tight-knit community of passionate audio engineers who can provide you with additional real-world mixing feedback, meaningful discussions, networking, collaborations, and more.
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6. 70+ GB of Curated Sage Audio Downloadable Content
- 36 multitrack sessions spanning multiple genres for mixing practice.
- 57 un-mastered mixes spanning multiple genres for mastering practice.
- 62 Recommended Free Plugins List (vetted, tested, and approved, so you don’t have to).
- 39 Recommended Paid Plugins List (vetted, tested, and approved, so you don’t have to).
- 71 Sage Audio custom plugin presets to improve your mixes and masters.
- Sage Audio Membership Badge to showcase on your website, social channels, and portfolio.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
7. 800+ Video Catalog
- Access 700+ in-depth Sage Audio mixing and mastering videos - curated and organized into categories so you can easily take a deep dive into all aspects of audio engineering with thousands of hours of concise, expertly crafted Sage Audio videos to continually improve your skills at your own pace.
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